Creating Psychological Safety on Teams
After my most recent speaking engagement, I got a great question in my LinkedIn inbox:
How does BURNOUT relate to ORGANIZATIONAL TRAUMA?
Since the question was posed, my brain has been legit spinning with all these connections and reasons why employees burnout at work. So much of it has to do with the points I detailed in a previous series I did on my blog called "What Companies can do to decrease employee burnout". Click the links that follow for part 1 and part 2 of that series.
But there are a couple things in that series that I keep coming back to: the necessity to show employees support and being compassionate and empathetic.
In that series of blogs, I shared an amazing Sheryl Sandberg quote from Option B that said, "Compassion at work shouldn't be a luxury; it's important to develop policies that give people the time off and support they need so we don’t have to rely on the kindness of our bosses."
That's super true! Absolutely! I mean, it's Sheryl Sandberg for Christ's sake! But, I think that compassion and creating a safe environment for employees goes far beyond compassion, personally.
I remember a time in my post-science, corporate past where the company I was with at the time did a survey and the outcome of that survey was that their employees didn't trust them to make changes that were in the employee's best interest. A hell of a revelation, am I right? However, this is the problem: the company then took that information and essentially said, "We know you don't trust us, but we've changed so you can trust us now! Tell us your deepest, darkest secrets, frustrations, and desires from us as a company!"
I remember receiving that information in a team meeting and just thinking "um, what? That's not how trust works." You can't take a culture where the employees have been given no reason to trust their managers, let alone their leadership, and expect them to give open up.
That trust? That ability to be open and transparent, to tell you the nitty gritty that you need to heard to improve the culture of your company? It requires psychological safety! And psychological safety in a corporate environment is built. It's earned. It's not something you can ask for.
So, how do you do that? Well, here are some starting points...
On a leadership level this looks like:
Being accessible and approachable. I'm not saying have no boundaries with your team, but I am saying be communicative with them about when you're unavailable and also communicate with you are available.
Give them acknowledgment! If someone enters your office, look up from your phone/computer. Better yet, close the laptop or put the cell phone away all together! If someone enters a meeting with you, genuinely look happy to see them and tell them hello, even if it's in a group.
Be clear about team standards and values and handle violations consistently. On my team standards, we naturally have something about work-life balance! I share my work hours readily and my team knows not to expect a response outside of those times, just like I don't expect a response from them outside of their regular work times. So, if you have similar values - of family, adventures, compassionate, etc. - don't just model those boundaries but create a team standards document and share it with every new team member.
Give each person a say and seek out contributions and ideas. This is hard as hell if you have a big team. I have 24 people on my team in my day job and my Wednesday team meetings are gigantic. So, I get that this is easier said than done, but do your best to share the love and ensure that one person isn't dominating the conversation.
Acknowledge the limits of your knowledge. I work in the education industry when I'm not coaching/speaking and I know how much benefit my students get when they see me mess up or not remember something. It gives them permission to make mistakes and be imperfect too, but I think we underappreciated the value that our team gets from seeing similar situations play out. Otherwise, us managers and leaders just seem like robots, and how un-relatable is that?
Provide transparency. I think as companies, we can probably do a lot better about this, especially when things aren't going as well as we want. However, teams and managers of teams can also provide that transparency. If a change didn't go about the way it was intended, tell your team that. I think acknowledging failures, shortcomings, mistakes, etc. is incredibly valuable for a company and a manager. In the same way, be transparent and own up to your mistakes, too.
Recognize team members not just for their victories, but for the risks they took that didn't pan out. I really hope I don't need to explain why this one is important, so just consider this a reminder.
Talk less and listen more. Honestly, in my 1-on-1 meetings with my team members, I feel like this is often the mode I step into. If something is going on, I want my team to feel like they have a voice. Even if they're in trouble or have done something wrong, they likely know it! So, instead of overtaking the meeting with all they've done wrong, give them a chance to recognize the mistake, share what happened, and construct a game plan for improving. People always buy-in to self-generated ideas more anyway!
There are also changes we can make on an individual level as well. For example, this might look like:
Maintaining high-quality connection with team members. Social support is one of the most well-studied things that helps mitigate and prevent burnout. High-quality relationships help us to know we're appreciated, valued, and make us feel safe speaking up about problems - even if the interaction is short!
Limit side conversations, cliques, and gossip. I think we know this, but one of the ways this can play out in digital spaces and virtual meetings, is not appearing attentive to the meeting. Making sure you're looking forward at your camera shows engagement. So, basically, this isn't the time to look off to the side and check your email.
Regularly utilize small, attentive gestures. Above we mentioned looking up from your computer and putting your phone away when someone enters your office. This is something we can do in our more informal interactions as well! Hell, even looking someone directly in their eye can be another small way to show, "hey, I'm here. I'm listening. You're my focus." It might feel uncomfortable at first, but it's only uncomfortable because it's so rare. In a digital space, we can simulate this by looking directly into our camera.
Give recognition! You don't have to be the manager to shout someone out for something awesome they did!
Help a team member out when they ask for it. It's amazing how often resource shares or questions go unanswered in Slack channels if the administrator of the Slack channel doesn't reply. However, as we know, it takes a lot to ask for help. So, let's be there for our peers when they do!
Offer support and encouragement. If you know something has been hard for you - implementing a change, working on a particular project, adopting a new idea, etc. - offer your team members encouragement as they work through those things too.